selection rules

The “S” in GOMS, selection rules are the rules people use to choose between multiple methods that accomplish the same goal. They typically depend on characteristics of the task or user’s personal preferences or knowledge.

set theory

One of the foundations of nearly all mathematics and formalism in computing is the manipulation of sets (unordered collections of things) and functions.

situated action

One can plan to descend a set of rapids in a canoe, and one can plan and replan as one goes along, but one cannot (successfully) plan the descent and then merely execute the actions. Suchman, in her 1986 book “Plans and situated actions”, analyzed action as necessarily improvisational. Actions are undertaken in response to the constantly changing physical and social environment. An important consequence of this is to make plans and planning a resource for action, and not simply as the determinant of action.

situation model

A mental model derived from a text that represents what the text is about.

skilled behavior

Movement through a problem space by applying a known operator at every state, from a known start state to a known end state. (see problem solving for a contrasting type of behavior).

skills-rules-knowledge framework

A taxonomy of three qualitatively distinct levels of cognitive control. An expert human operator may exhibit any or all levels of cognitive control, depending upon the situation. This is not to be confused with models that describe stages of acquiring expertise or skill.

soar

A computational cognitive architecture developed by Allen Newel, John Laird, and Paul Rosenbloom in the early 1980s. It was used as the exemplar in Newell’s 1990 book Unified Theories of Cognition. It has undergone continual development from its inception in many universities and has also been commercialized for complex modeling in military simulations and intelligent agents for video games. Soar was one of the architectures reviewed in Pew & Mavor (1998). More information about this series of architectures can be found in Newell (1990).

socially distributed cognition

This is the theoretical position that goal-directed group activity can be understood in computational terms.

social-organizational analysis

A way of analyzing work that focuses on how work is organized and shared across people and supporting tools. It is an analytic phase of cognitive work analysis.

sociology

The investigation of social structure, social relationships, and individual social action.